


Beer

by strange_glow



Series: Virus Prequals [3]
Category: Weiss Kreuz
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Shounen-ai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-08
Updated: 2015-07-08
Packaged: 2018-04-08 06:33:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4294386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strange_glow/pseuds/strange_glow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In Switzerland, you can drink beer and wine at 16, but not hard liquor like whiskey, etc.  </p><p>Yuuji tries to take advantage of this.  </p><p>Part 3 in the Virus Prequals, Brad and Yuuji (Yohji) at Rozencruez.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beer

 

“ _Come on_ ,” Yuuji urged.

“ _I don’t want to_ ,” Brad said, stubbornly remaining on his bed with a text book in his hands.

“You’re not even studying any more, you’re just—wallowing in education for the hell of it,” Yuuji accused from where he stood at the end of the bed. 

“I still have to study, you know.  I can’t just pick an answer and know it will be right if I don’t know the patterns that lead up to it.”

“So you’ve said,” Yuuji grabbed his ankles and pulled.  “ _Come on_!” 

Brad threw the book at him, hitting him in the shoulder despite his ducking.  “I said no!”

Yuuji pulled his leg up, tugged a sock down and licked him on the ankle.  “Come on!” 

“Not working, Asshole!” Brad half sat up, his elbows propping him up.  “Let go of me!”

Yuuji dropped him.  “How are you going to learn to manipulate people if you don’t even practice interacting with them?”

Brad looked at him darkly.  “Easy.  Hold a gun to their heads and tell them to do as I say.”

Yuuji laughed. “This is why you’re adorable.”

“You.  Are.  A.  Freak,” Brad stated, and got up to collect his text book from the floor.  “I’m not going out partying with you and that’s final.  Go play with your mice, you sadistic cat,” he sat down at the desk and plunked his text book on it, opening it to find the page he’d been on. 

Yuuji sat down on the foot of Brad’s bed.  “What _is_ your problem?”

Brad took his glasses off and set them down to rub his eyes.  He no longer needed the anxiety drugs, but the headaches and the stabbing pains were still a problem.  “I’m tired,” he said.  “Just go.  Leave me alone.  I just want some peace and quiet.  And maybe I’ll go to bed early like sane people do before exams, so don’t be a _jerk_ when you come back.”

Yuuji’s natural brightness went dim, “It won’t be fun without you,” he complained mildly. 

“I don’t _want_ to watch _you_ have a good time.  You don’t care if I’m there or not.”

“That’s not true,” Yuuji said, his shoulders slumping.  He stretched out his legs and frowned at his sneakers.  “It’s not fun if you’re not there to know what I’m doing.”

“You’re not happy unless I’m annoyed with having to watch you flirting like an idiot?” Brad raised his voice.

“No!” Yuuji protested.  “Well maybe a little yes, but almost totally no.  I mean you’re the only one who knows what’s really going on, and it’s just work without someone who can laugh about it with me later.  You don’t smile anymore,” he added in complaint. 

Brad sighed, tapping his glasses on the desk.  “Don’t exaggerate.”

Yuuji tapped the sides of his toes together for a little while in silence.  “Well you don’t,” he murmured. “I wish they hadn’t done that to you.”

“Stop feeling sorry for _yourself_ ,” Brad snapped.

“That’s not true either,” Yuuji got up and put his hands on either side of Brad’s head. “I wish I knew how to fix it.”

“Stop that,” Brad said, irritated. He tried to shake him off.   

Yuuji tucked his head under his arm like a basket ball and held him there, “Alas, poor Crawford.  I knew him, Horatio. A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy…”

“I’ll stop _your_ fucking hole,” Crawford shoved him off so that he teetered on one foot and nearly fell, then caught his balance to plunk down on the bed again.  “Go away!”

“There you see, you _do_ pay attention in class.  Most people don’t get to that part,” Yuuji said. “I always thought it was rather rude, knocking about with someone’s skull making foul jokes and then complaining about the smell.”

“I hate Shakespeare,” Brad made a face.  “When Esset rules the world, it should be banned as deviant.”

“Keep writing lit papers like that last one and you’ll have them convinced,” Yuuji flopped back on the bed.  “If you won’t come out with me, I’ll sing the entire thing from Pirates of Penzance, and you know how you hate that.”

“It truly worries me how you’ve started collecting _musicals_ ,” Brad turned to glare at him. 

“Come and get drunk off your ass, Crawford,” Yuuji stated.  “Beer is good, you know.”

“Oh _fine!_ ” Brad slammed his text book shut and sprung out of the chair.  “Anything but listening to you sing fucking _Buttercup_ in falsetto again.  Why you haven’t signed up for Interrogation 102, I have no idea!” he angrily buttoned up his shirt and fixed his cuffs.

“Because we only needed 101 for the marks,” Yuuji got up and found his jacket.  “They did a lot more to your mind than just choke down on your talent, didn’t they?  Poor old thing.  There goes Crawford, mad science turned him into a cranky middle aged man at 14.”

“Shut up, Sarazawa,” Brad ordered and got his jacket out of the closet.  “I’m going, aren’t I?”

“Oh, I’ll love you forever, because you know what?” Yuuji got an arm behind his back and shoved him out the dorm room door. 

“What?” Brad said dully.

“It’s Retro 60’s karaoke night at the Pub!”

“NO!” Brad turned around and tried to get back into the room.

Yuuji grabbed him by the hips, got him on his shoulders in a fireman’s lift and pulled him free of the door frame.  “Are we going to fall down the stairs and break anything if you keep struggling?” he asked gleefully, staggering on the landing.  “ ’Cause you’re really getting too big for me to be lugging you around like this anymore against your will.”

                *             *             *

“I like explosives,” Yuuji said, setting the technical book down on his thighs, and looking off into the distance of the meadow below where they were having their picnic.  “I suppose it’s your fault.”

“ _My fault_?” Brad said with his mouth full, flakes of apple pie crust falling back into his paper plate. “How can it be my fault you want to be a mad bomber?” He used his plastic fork to wipe pie sauce off his chin into his mouth.

“Do you really expect me to explain something to _you_ that has to do with romantic notions?” Yuuji eyed him warily. 

“What the hell have ‘romantic notions’ got to do with munitions?” Brad eyed him just as narrowly. 

“It’s the sudden boom,” Yuuji toned it down.  “And all the destruction.  It’s exciting.”

“You need to get laid more often,” Brad stuffed more apple pie into his mouth.

Yuuji blushed.  “What a thing to say!  It’s not like you’ve had any more experience than me.”

“No.  I don’t go around sticking my tongue in other people’s mouths,” Brad’s eyes got even more evil toward him.

“That was an emergency,” Yuuji stated. 

“Eugh,” Brad stated right back at him. 

“That was two years ago.  You can’t _still_ be holding it against me.”

“I’m not holding _anything_ against you, you pervert.  But this thing with explosives is very Freudian.”

“It is not, I’m just saying I like explosives.  Sometimes a pipe bomb is just a pipe bomb!”

“Hmmm,” Brad was squinting at him now. 

Yuuji pulled up a hand full of meadow grass and threw it at him.  “Stop that.”

Brad picked half dried grass out of his plate and flung it back, though it had no aerodynamic qualities.  “So you’re taking more chemistry and what’s euphemistically called demolitions this semester?  I hope you’re not planning on bringing things back to the dorm with you.”

Yuuji snorked, “That _would_ be funny. Seeing you startled witless for a change.”

“Not happening,” Brad stated.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Yuuji protested, knowing he’d pressed a button again.  “Forgive me, or I’ll start problem solving Maria all over the place.  Think of the echoes.”

“I _will_ kill you.” Brad warned.  “Just because we’re here in a god damned Alpine meadow is no reason to spoil things with your caterwauling.  Damn it, I’m putting my foot down.  No more drama classes.  You’re getting absolutely Gay.”

“Said the guy who thinks females in general are a genetic aberration caused by solar flares and compounded by misguided societal exaggeration,” Yuuji drawled.  “Anyway what’s wrong with being Gay?”

Brad stopped chewing for a moment to consider this.  “I haven’t decided yet.  I don’t feel particularly thrilled about ‘sex’ in general.  Which is probably your fault.  You’re just—sticky and clingy.  Stop licking me and trying to get me all infected with your germy mind control.”

“My _germy mind control_?” Yuuji said in derision. 

“I don’t think I even like people,” Brad said vaguely. 

“Eeeee-UGH!” Yuuji announced to the whole planet as an alternative struck him.

“Not _that_ way, you swine!” Brad protested.  “I mean, just people in general.  They annoy me.  I just want to be left alone,” he said sullenly

“Maybe you’re some sort of low level autistic or something,” Yuuji said, picking a flower out of the grass and spinning it in his fingers. 

“ _I_ think I’m psychotic, but they keep telling me it’s not that bad,” Brad put his now empty plate in the trash bag in the wicker basket.  “I must have miss-ticked a box or something,” he frowned.

“Maybe you just haven’t met enough people you _can_ like.  Rosencruz,” Yuuji said dully, as if that explained it all.  Which in a way, it did.

“How can you stand them?” Brad asked. 

“I suppose it’s something to do with my talent.  I’m just a ‘people’ person.”

“What the bloody hell does _that_ mean, anyway?” Brad was irritated. 

“Aberrant societal preference at work again?” Yuuji teased.  “If you had it your way, we’d probably all eat ex amount and then split in two.”

“I’ve seen a few who _should_ split in two.  Maybe it’s finally correcting itself.  Statistics will out.”

“Oh, to live in _your_ little world,” Yuuji threw the flower at him.  Of course it hit the breeze and fell short.

“Well how can you stand it?  People always making up to you. And how many times have you had to ‘defend your virtue’ in the shower rooms, for crisakes?”

“The black belt in karate helps, believe me,” Yuuji said.  “I just have to—not get too close to people, that’s all.  The more I’m around the same people for a while, the more they get—all _squidgy_ over me.”

“Really? I can’t imagine why,” Brad said, eying him again as if he were growing antlers or something.

“Why _are_ you immune to me?” Yuuji asked flat out.

“I wonder,” Brad said.  “Why does it matter?”

Yuuji brushed the tall grass beside the blanket they’d spread out to sit on with his hand, looking for another flower.  “Well, if you think about it, it’s sort of like your talent being hobbled.  It’s—weird.”

“Ah,” Brad said.

“Why do you keep finding ways to dispose of people who try to get close to me if you’re so immune to me?” Yuuji looked at him.

Brad pondered this.  “One, they make such easy targets . Two, you’re my friend,” he finally said.  “I don’t like people who think they can steal you.”

“People can have more than one friend, Brad.”

“No,” he said, quite seriously.  “Not in this case.”

Yuuji smiled, not sure he was understanding why he was doing so.  “You’re insane,” he said, laying back on the blanket to look up at the blue sky.

                *             *             *

“I like beer,” Brad said, looking at his fifth bottle on the table in front of him in the pub.  “It’s certainly better than pills.”

“How fu-foo-fuh… Fucking profound,” Yuuji said with difficulty, his own fifth grasped tightly in his hand on the table as he held on to the edge with his other hand for dear life.  The room was rocking and spinning like a tilt-a-whirl as far as he was concerned.  “Why you no drunk?”

Brad looked at him.  “I have no idea what drunk is like.  Maybe I am.  Do you realized you’re going to hurl?”

Yuuji belched.  “Maybe.”

Brad frowned and had another swallow of his drink.  “Well, aim it away from me.  Why are you so drunk?”

“Drank too fast,” Yuuji stated.  “You, sir, are a freak in more ways than one,” he drained his bottle and plunked it down.

“Why aren’t you out on the floor dancing instead of sitting here trying to keep up with me?”

“Don’t want to,” Yuuji attempted to focus on him.  “Have to be seri-cereal-sureal- _seriously_ drunk.”

Brad smirked.  “Objective achieved.  Now what?”

Yuuji reached over and caught his arm on the table top, wobbling in his chair.  “Something to—to say.” He swallowed hard.  “ _B’rightback_ ,” he got up and fled for the bathrooms.

“Okaaay,” Brad said, sipping his beer.  “Personal dignity, out the door by bottle four.  Loss of concern for companions embarrassing one, bottle six?” 

“Your friend’s pretty cute, even when he’s drunk,” someone said in English in a half giggle. 

Brad looked up.  A conventionally pretty girl stood there with an almost empty plastic cup of beer in her hand.  Another pretty girl stood beside her with her own cup. 

“Can we join you?” the girl asked, smiling brightly. 

“No,” Brad said calmly.  He didn’t recognize them from the school, and they were obviously not aware of his age, but their intent was clear enough even at six seconds.

The girl looked blank for a moment, as if she hadn’t understood him. 

“No, I don’t wish to spend my money on buying you drinks.  No, I’m not interested in ‘hooking up’ with either of you.  No, you can’t stand there and toss a fit at being rejected because you’re just too cute to ever be rejected; no, the alternative is not being your bestest friend ever just because you assume I’m gay because I’m rejecting you sexually.  Now if you were say, Paris Hilton and there was a prize inside for conning stupid little you out of everything you ever owned, and would inherit; yes; but no.  Go. Away.” He opened his jacket to show the butt of his gun.  “Throw that beer at me, and I will kill you.”

The girl who had spoken turned pale, and stomped away.  Her friend shot him a dirty look and hurried after her. 

Yuuji came back five minutes later looking grayed out.  “Oh, man, never doing that again,” he pushed his now soaking wet hair back behind his ears.  He fell into his chair. 

“Order a sandwich or something.  Ham and lots of pickles,” Brad suggested. 

Yuuji gave him the look of impending death and slumped on his arms on the table.  “Sadist.”

Brad finished his beer and set it down, standing up.  “Come on, let’s go back now. You’re in no state to ‘party’ anyway, and I’ve had enough people for the evening.”

Yuuji looked like he was going to protest, then gave up.  “Can’t walk straight,” he said, wobbling. “Help?”

Brad looked irritated, then let him sling an arm around his shoulders. 

“You’re getting tall,” Yuuji commented in his ear.

“Thank goodness you rinsed your mouth out, but did you have to use the hand soap as mouth wash?” Brad said, aiming for the door through the  pounding music and gyrating bodies.  Yuuji was sober enough to flirt on the way there, he noticed.

Outside the cool evening air hit them like a slap in the face and Brad realized he was possibly drunk himself.  Strange, he hadn’t felt a thing until he’d had to navigate.  His coordination was off.  Like standing in the surf for a few hours at the beach made the ground seem less ‘under foot’.  He saw the soft pretzel vendor was still working down the street and started for the cart.  “Come on, work with me here.  You need something in your stomach.”

“My stomach said to tell you to fuck off,” Yuuji burped again.  “Bleh!”

Brad bought them both one anyway.  “Eat,” he ordered, sitting down on the bus stop bench beside him. 

Yuuji bit into his and managed to coordinate enough to chew and swallow.  “Alright,” he said, having another bite.  “I may live.”

Brad ate his pretzel in silence, waiting.

Yuuji finally sighed and picked at the paper wrapping the last third of his pretzel.  “Stupid,” he said. 

“Yes, you are,” Brad said.

“I love you,” Yuuji said.

“So very drunk.”

“No, I was—before I got drunk.  I just had to—well, there you are,” he ate more of the chewy soft pretzel.

Brad sat further back on the bench and sighed, looking at the darkened street and the slow traffic. 

“Say something!” Yuuji urged.

“Something,”Brad couldn’t help smiling.

“I’m going to kick the shit out of you,” the blond threatened. 

“As if,” Brad bit into the last of his pretzel. The beer buzz was just humming away happily. 

Yuuji reached over and tapped him on the shoulder.  “Look at me.”

“So you can pull a Dracula on me?  Hell no,” Brad teased.

Yuuji pulled a pair of dark glasses out of his jacket breast pocket and put them on.  “There.  Now look at me.”

Brad obeyed for once. 

“I—,” Yuuji blushed.  “Don’t look at me.” He turned away again. 

“Are we going to do this all night, because I’d really like to go back and pass out.”

Yuuji looked at him again, then reached over to collect Brad’s hand in his.  “Can we be more than friends?”

“Why?” Brad asked.

“Because I love you,” Yuuji stated.

“How would that work?” Brad asked bluntly.  “Don’t be stupid, I understand the basic mechanics of sex, I just don’t think you have all your marbles right now.”

“I wish I hadn’t gotten drunk,” Yuuji said.  “We’d be a pair, a couple.  You know.”

“People already shrink back and flee us in the hallways,” Brad said, evil eyes sparkling with humor.

“My germy mind control doesn’t work on you, that’s why I know you actually are my friend,” Yuuji blurted out.  “Please?” he said softly. 

“Please what?” Brad knew he was being horrible, but this was too much fun.

Yuuji leaned over closer.  “Please let me do lewd and disgustingly sweaty and sticky things with you that you might like if you let yourself.”

“You’ve done this before?”

“No, something always turns me off before I get that far,” he admitted.  “Because—I keep thinking of you.”

“And this will get it off your mind so you can then go on and perform like the normal male slut you should be?”

“Maaaay-beee,” Yuuji said.

“See, this is why I hate you.” Brad snorted, flinging his hand off.  “Drunken ass.  Come on, let’s go,” he stood up and threw his pretzel wrapper in a near by trash can.

“Still can’t walk, not without help.”

“I should just leave you here for the police.”

“You wouldn’t do that.” Yuuji looked up at him.

“I should,” Brad repeated.  Then he held out his hand.  Yuuji grabbed it and Brad hauled him to his feet.

Yuuji pulled him close and pressed his lips to his, kissing him.  No funny stuff, no tongue to tonsils, just kissing him. 

Brad thawed a little, but not much. 

“You knew that was going to happen, didn’t you?” Yuuji asked when he finally quit.

“Yes.  That’s why I made you eat a pretzel.  I don’t like the taste of soap.”

Yuuji held him close tightly. “Well?” he said into the crook of Brad's neck.

“Let me think about it.”

“Why do you have to think about it!  Either it’s yes or no!”

“Well, you can have a knee in the nuts now, and a yes or no later, how’s that?”

Yuuji let go of him, “No, thank you,” he held his hands down to defend himself.  “I’ll take the yes or no later.”

“Thought as much,” Brad started walking, smiling to himself. 

“Oh, come on!” Yuuji protested. 

“You’re the one who chugged all those beers and got snonkered.  Suffer,” Brad called back over his shoulder.

 

 

 

 


End file.
